Pashur

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Pash'ur. (Freedom).

1. One of the families of priests, of the chief house of Malchijah.  1 Chronicles 9:12;  1 Chronicles 24:9;  Nehemiah 11:12;  Jeremiah 21:1;  Jeremiah 38:1. In the time of Nehemiah, this family appears to have become a chief house, and its head, the head of a course.  Ezra 2:38;  Nehemiah 7:41;  Nehemiah 10:3.

The individual from whom the family was named was, probably, Pushur, the son of Malchiah, who in the reign of Zedekiah was one of the chief princes of the court.  Jeremiah 38:1. (B.C. 607). He was sent, with others, by Zedekiah to Jeremiah, at the time when Nebuchudnezzar was preparing his attack upon Jerusalem.  Jeremiah 21:1. Again, somewhat later, Pashur joined with several other chief men in petitioning the king, that Jeremiah might be put to death as a traitor.  Jeremiah 38:4.

2. Another person of this name, also a priest, and "chief governor of the house of the Lord," is mentioned in  Jeremiah 20:1. He is described as "the son of Immer,"  1 Chronicles 24:14, probably, the same as Amariah, 6 .  Nehemiah 10:3;  Nehemiah 12:2; etc.

In the reign of Jehoiakim, he showed himself as hostile to Jeremiah as his namesake, the son of Malchiah, did afterward, and put him in the stocks, by the gate of Benjamin. For this indignity to God's prophet, Pashur was told by Jeremiah, that his name was changed to Magor-missabib , ( Terror On Every Side ), and that he, and all his house should be carried captives to Babylon, and there die.  Jeremiah 20:1-6. (B.C. 589).

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

("prosperity everywhere") (Gesenius).

1.  Jeremiah 20:1-6. A priest, Immer's son, of the 16th order ( 1 Chronicles 9:12), "chief governor in the house of the Lord." There were 24 in all: 16 of Eleazar's sons, eight of Ithamar's, answering ( Luke 22:4) to the captains of the temple ( 1 Chronicles 24:14). Smote and put in the stocks Jeremiah for foretelling Jerusalem's desolation. On the following day Jeremiah, when brought out of the stocks, foretold that he should be not Pashur but Magor-Missabib, a terror to himself and his friends; he and all in his house, and all his friends to whom he had "prophesied lies" ( Jeremiah 5:31;  Jeremiah 18:18), should go into captivity and die in Babylon.

2.  Jeremiah 21:1;  Jeremiah 21:9;  Jeremiah 38:1-2;  Jeremiah 38:6;  1 Chronicles 24:9;  1 Chronicles 24:14;  Nehemiah 11:12. (See Magor-Missabib The house was a chief one in Nehemiah's time ( Nehemiah 7:41;  Nehemiah 10:3;  Nehemiah 12:2). He was sent by Zedekiah to consult Jeremiah on the issue of Nebuchadnezzar's threatened attack, and received a reply foreboding Judah's overthrow. Subsequently, after the respite caused by Pharaoh Hophra had ended and the Chaldees returned to the siege, Pashur was one who besought the king to kill Jeremiah for weakening the hands of the men of war by dispiriting prophecies, and who cast the prophet into the pit of Malchiah.

3.  Jeremiah 38:1.

Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary

The son of Immer; a deadly foe to the church. His name is derived from Pashah, to spread; but from his enmity to the people of God while governor in the land, and his cruelty upon the person of the prophet Jeremiah, the prophet called him Magor-missabib, which the margin of the Bible renders fear round about. (See  Jeremiah 20:1-6) I pause over the name and character of this man just to remark the blessedness of all times in the church, when the Lord is pleased to give to his exercised people precious testimonies to his truth over and above the grace he manifests to their own hearts. Though, as Asaph saith, apparently the way of the wicked prospereth to outward view, yet to inward feelings they are total strangers to any good; and who shall take upon them to say what sorrows fill their minds? "There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked." ( Isaiah 57:21) When the Lord's people therefore hear of such characters, or behold them in their own neighbourhood, (and they are to be found in every place) and observe in the midst of much outside appearances of gaiety, that they are like so many Pashur Magor-missabibs in themselves, surely a voice from every parish steeple where they dwell could not more loudly testify to the truths of God! I would recommend the reader, at any time, when at a loss to explain what he beholds of the prosperity of the wicked and the adversity of the Lord's exercised family, to read what Asaph, taught by the Holy Ghost, hath said,  Psalms 73:1-28, throughout; and if he adds to Asaph's observations what the man of Uz hath said on the same subject, he will find both profitable. ( Job 21:7-13) Moses also, the man of God, hath left upon record the portrait of the inward terrors of the haunted mind. ( Deuteronomy 28:65-67)

Morrish Bible Dictionary

1. Son of Malchijah, a priest, and ancestor of some who returned from exile.  1 Chronicles 9:12;  Ezra 2:38;  Ezra 10:22;  Nehemiah 7:41;  Nehemiah 11:12 . Perhaps the same as No. 4.

2. Priest who sealed the covenant.   Nehemiah 10:3 .

3. Son of Immer, 'chief governor in the house of the Lord.' He struck Jeremiah and put him in the stocks. Jeremiah said to him that the Lord had called his name MAGOR-MISSABIB, 'fear round about' margin . The Lord would make him a terror to himself and all his friends; and they should fall by the sword. He should be carried into captivity and die there.  Jeremiah 20:1-6 .

4. Son of Melchiah or Malchiah: he with others advised Zedekiah to put Jeremiah to death.   Jeremiah 21:1;  Jeremiah 38:1 .

5. Father of Gedaliah.   Jeremiah 38:1 .

Holman Bible Dictionary

 Jeremiah 20:1-2 Jeremiah 38:1 2 Jeremiah 21:1 Jeremiah 21:1-7 Jeremiah 38:1-3 3 1 Corinthians 9:12 Ezra 2:38 Ezra 10:22 Nehemiah 10:3 Nehemiah 11:12

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

1. The son of Immer, a priest and a chief officer in the temple; he violently opposed the prophet Jeremiah, and persecuted him even with blows and confinement in the stocks; but all recoiled on his own head,  Jeremiah 20:1-6 .

2. The son of Malchiah, an enemy of Jeremiah, and active in securing his imprisonment,  Jeremiah 21:1;  38:1-6 . Many descendants of this Pashur returned from captivity at Babylon,  1 Chronicles 9:12;  Ezra 2:38 .

Easton's Bible Dictionary

The father of Gedaliah. He was probably the same as (1).

Copyright Statement These dictionary topics are from M.G. Easton M.A., DD Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Third Edition, published by Thomas Nelson, 1897. Public Domain.

Bibliography Information Easton, Matthew George. Entry for 'Pashur'. Easton's Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/ebd/p/pashur.html. 1897.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

[some Pa'shu/r] (Heb. Pa'shur', פֵּשְׁחוּר [Gesen., from an Arabic root, Surrounded With Prosperity; Furst, from a Heb. root , Liberation; the etymology, as implying something favorable, seems to be referred to in  Jeremiah 20:3]; Sept. Φασχώρ , Φασούρ , v.r. Φασσούρ [ Ezra 2:38;  Ezra 10:22], Φασεούρ [ Nehemiah 7:41], Πασχώρ [in Jeremiah]), the name of two or three men.

1. A priest, the son of Immer, and a contemporary of Jeremiah, who acted so as to incur a severe threatening from that prophet; B.C. 607. Presuming on his position as "chief governor in the house of the Lord" ( Jeremiah 20:1) — that is, probably, being at the head of those who had the charge of maintaining order and decorum about the Temple — he smote Jeremiah, when he heard him prophesying of the desolations which were going to fall upon Jerusalem, and put him in the stocks. In this humiliating and painful situation the prophet remained for a night; and on being brought forth on the morrow, he declared to Pashur that the Lord no longer called his name Pashur, but Magor-misabib — on every side enveloped in trouble and distress. This, the prophet further intimates, was to be verified by both Pashur and his family being involved in the terrible disasters that were presently to burst on Judah and Jerusalem from the invasion of Nebuchadnezzar; they were to be all carried away into captivity to Babylon, and die in that foreign land ( Jeremiah 20:6). We have no specific account of the fortunes of the family; but the circumstances which soon took place leave no room to doubt that the prediction was verified.

2. Another priest in the time of Jeremiah, being the son of Melchiah ( Jeremiah 21:1;  Jeremiah 38:1). B.C. 589. He twice came in contact with the prophet: once when sent along with some others to inquire what was the mind of the Lord respecting the meditated assault of Nebuchadnezzar against Jerusalem, which drew forth an announcement of certain overthrow; and again when concurring with several others in an application to the king to have Jeremiah put to death on account of the denunciations he was uttering, as tending to discourage the people and produce in them a spirit of disaffection. The application led to Jeremiah's imprisonment, from which he was only delivered by the special interposition of Providence ( 1 Chronicles 9:12). Pashur's family, however, were among those who returned from the captivity of Babylon, and seem to have possessed a place of importance both as to position and numbers ( Nehemiah 7:41;  Nehemiah 11:12).

3. The father of Gedaliah, which latter took part with the Pashur last named in the accusation and imprisonment of Jeremiah ( Jeremiah 38:1). B.C. 589. He was perhaps identical with one or the other of the foregoing.

Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature

Pashur, 1

Pash´ur, son of Immer, a priest, and chief overseer of the Temple, who smote Jeremiah and put him in the stocks for his prophecies of captivity and ruin; on which the prophet was commissioned to declare that he should be one of those to go into exile, and that he and all his friends should die in Babylon, and be buried there .

Pashur, 2

Pashur, son of Melchiah, a high officer of King Zedekiah, and one of those at whose instance Jeremiah was cast into prison . A descendant of his is mentioned among the new colonists of Jerusalem after the captivity .